Breakfast today was different from yesterday. We thought the waitress in Marquette was absolutely chirpy. At one point she even said the word, "sure" (shr) so quickly that it sounded like the word "chirp". It was funny. But the waitress today was born with a pickle in her mouth. She was ill-tempered and rather unpleasant. Big difference.
We drove back 14 miles to the Canyon Falls. It was a 10 minute march down a forest path to reach the falls. The moisture in the undergrowth covered the boardwalk and the stones in the path. There were ferns growing beside the trail under pine and cherry trees. We were surrounded on our walk by the call of the Northern Parula (Parula americana), a liquidy ascending zipper sound. We never saw the bird, but identification, hearing that ascending zipper, was definitive.
 |
Then we drove back onto the Keweenaw Peninsula and north along the highway. Inside the Sturgeon River Slough we found a delightful family of Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis). We saw a male and female and four large nestlings about the size of Canada Geese. Berry found two Green Winged Teals (Anas crecca) in a small canal. There I saw a Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) among other birds. I climbed an observation tower in the rain.
 |
For lunch in the town of Hancock (next to the bigger town, Houghton) I had a miner's dish called a "pastie". Berry had one, too. Cornish miners came here from England and brought with them this miner's dish. Potatos, onions, carrots and rutabaga, chopped and made into a hash with ground beef. And all that tucked inside a segment of pastry.
 |
Today we stopped at a lot of waterfalls and a lot of lighthouses. The rocky texture of the geography here lends itself to waterfalls and lighthouses. When we stopped at the Eagle River Falls, a Common Redpoll(Carduelis flammea) flitted into view. We came back to Houghton for the night.
 |
Robert
photos courtesy of rfowler, wikipedia, navaho and gtepke
No comments:
Post a Comment